Palmer Luckey says he donated to pro-Trump group, but doesn't support Trump

Published Sat, Sep 24 2016 12:42 PM EDT

Adi Robertson

Palmer Luckey, Founder, Oculus VR, on the Centre Stage during Day 1 of the 2015 Web Summit in the RDS, Dublin, Ireland.

Stephen McCarthy | Sportsfile/Corbis | Getty Images

Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey has denied a report that he wrote posts associated with a pro-Donald Trump group called Nimble America, or that he supports Trump as a presidential candidate.

"I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners," he wrote on Facebook. "The recent news stories about me do not accurately represent my views."

Yesterday, The Daily Beastreported that Luckey had helped fund a pro-Trump group called Nimble America, which was attempting to change the media narrative with "shitposting" and "meme magic." According to the report, Luckey had confirmed that he was behind a now-deleted Reddit account called NimbleRichMan, who purported to be a wealthy Trump supporter.

Luckey's story directly contradicts this. "I contributed $10,000 to Nimble America because I thought the organization had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters through the use of several billboards. I am a libertarian who has publicly supported Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in the past, and I plan on voting for Gary in this election as well," he writes. "I am committed to the principles of fair play and equal treatment. I did not write the 'NimbleRichMan' posts, nor did I delete the account."

Ben Collins, one of the original authors of the piece, responded to the statement with screenshots of an apparent email thread between Luckey and co-author Gideon Resnick. "I made the post, just not the account," reads Luckey's apparent side of the conversation, in response to a question about a NimbleRichMan post. When Resnick followed up by asking if someone posted on his behalf, the author identified as Luckey wrote "I posted the body myself. Want me to email an intro to them?"

On Twitter, that he had not described Luckey as a founder of Nimble America.

Oculus, which hasn't released a formal response to the piece, pointed us to Luckey's Facebook post in response to an earlier request for comment. Luckey's full response is below:

I am deeply sorry that my actions are negatively impacting the perception of Oculus and its partners. The recent news stories about me do not accurately represent my views.

Here's more background: I contributed $10,000 to Nimble America because I thought the organization had fresh ideas on how to communicate with young voters through the use of several billboards. I am a libertarian who has publicly supported Ron Paul and Gary Johnson in the past, and I plan on voting for Gary in this election as well.

I am committed to the principles of fair play and equal treatment. I did not write the "NimbleRichMan" posts, nor did I delete the account. Reports that I am a founder or employee of Nimble America are false. I don't have any plans to donate beyond what I have already given to Nimble America.

Still, my actions were my own and do not represent Oculus. I'm sorry for the impact my actions are having on the community.